Filer is an automatic file organizer. It takes the files it's opened with or that are dropped on its icon and move, rename, copy or do all sorts of other things with them according to rules created by the user.
Filer is accompanied by AutoFiler. Instead of working on a set of files provided by the user, it can be started together with Haiku to monitor certain folders and deal with new files appearing there according to the user-defined rules.
Double-clicking Filer opens the settings with a list of organization rules. When started for the first time, you are asked if you'd like to have a few example rules by default. You can edit them to your needs or remove them altogether at any time.
A rule needs three items: A
, the condition it is applied, and what action to .Click on the buttons in the "When" and "Do" boxes to explore the various options to construct the right condition and what action will be taken. You can add several conditions which will all have to be met to trigger the action. If you add several actions in the "Do" box, be aware that they are executed in order, from top to bottom.
Please read the Rule-Making Reference (also available from the button) for more information on the various possibilities.
Once you have created some rules, using Filer to process some files accordingly is very simple. There are basically three ways:
When AutoFiler is running, it monitors user-defined folders and executes the actions defined in the Filer rules automatically.
The AutoFiler itself is a background application that normally isn't started manually. If you want to stop an already running AutoFiler, you'll have to quit it through a tool like Haiku's ProcessController or kill it from the TeamMonitor (press CTRL ALT DEL).
The configuration is done with the AutoFiler Settings:
You can add, edit and remove the folders that AutoFiler will monitor and use the checkbox to enable/disable the automatic launch on startup.